News

By Ryan Schlehuber - MCC sportswriter 

As many as 130 people and 32 four-person teams participated in the Montcalm Community College’s inaugural Centurions Athletics Golf Outing at Glenkerry Golf Course in Greenville, Friday, June 27, helping to raise just over $15,000. 

The golf outing fundraiser supported and celebrated the return of athletics to the Sidney campus after more than a 40-year hiatus and most, if not all, volunteers and organizers of the event were Centurions athletes, coaches and administration.  

“It was great to bring most of our athletes together to support this event, as it is organized for their benefit and to help provide scholarships in the future,” MCC Athletic Director Hunter Redman said. “This is also a great opportunity for current and incoming athletes to meet each other from different programs.” 

Winning the four-man scramble was the “Johnsons” team, which included Scott Johnson, Tate Johnson and Centurions golfers and brothers Ethan and Zach Johnson. 

According to Rick Adgate, an MCC Foundation board member for the past 16 years, this was the first golf outing hosted by MCC since 2017, when the college celebrated its 50th anniversary. 

“These kinds of events always bring communities together,” said Adgate, who was a member of Eagle Realty golf team that participated in the golf outing. “This is an opportunity to get everyone in and build the brand, and it’s a good opportunity to get some partners out here and see what we at MCC are doing.” 

For many participants, the golf outing was a fun way of giving back to a community college that helped them find a path in life, such as Patty Rockafellow, who was playing with the team “Girls Just Want to Have Fun,” which included her friends Esther Combs, who is a member of both the MCC Board of Trustees and the MCC Foundation board, Linda Swanson and Betty Wakefield. 

Rockafellow is an MCC alumna and is a member of MCC’s alumni choir. Her mother, Wilma Baldwin, was also a business teacher for the community college many years ago. 

Rockafellow said as soon as she heard about the golf outing, she knew she needed to pull together a team and play. 

“This event is great,” she said. “Betty is the one that saw it advertised, and we knew we needed some fun girls to come play in this event and support MCC sports,” she said.  

All Rockafellow’s family members have a tie to MCC in some way or another, with all three of her children having participated in the dual enrollment with MCC during their high school careers.  

“When I was a student at MCC, I received a scholarship from them and never had to pay a penny,” she said. “And then I got another scholarship when I transferred to Central Michigan University and that was a big deal for us because our family didn’t have any money.” 

Wakefield reminisced about her days as an MCC student, as well, pointing out one memory that exemplified how caring MCC was for its students. 

“I was an MCC student before I transferred to Ferris State (University), and I was in a car accident and I was stuck in a wheelchair,” Wakefield said. “MCC actually sent a tutor out to my home since I wasn’t able to even get out of my wheelchair, and we dissected a pig and a cat right there on my dining room table. They were amazing.” 

Combs called MCC a “diamond in our little, rural community.” 

“It has helped our community develop in so many ways,” Combs said. “Being able to bring the sports programs back, being able to bring in housing for this area is phenomenal.” 

Combs credited MCC for everything that led her towards her career.  

“As a first-generation college student attending MCC and then moving on to CMU and then East Carolina for my doctorate program, it was MCC that changed my life,” she said. “Having this golf outing event, it helps highlights all the good that we’ve had and have at MCC.” 

Another MCC supporter who enjoyed the golf outing was Amy Homich, a commercial lender for Commercial Bank in Greenville. She was golfing with the business’ team. 

Homich has been a longtime partner with MCC, serving as co-chair of the community college’s capital campaign, and also running her Hive AAU volleyball club program through MCC’s gymnasium for the past decade.  

“MCC has always been good to my Hive club, giving us gym time,” Homich said, stating that former MCC President Bob Ferrentino offered the college’s gymnasium as a place for her club program to operate.  

Homich said she has always supported MCC, especially since her children were MCC students. 

“Both my son and daughter went to MCC,” she said. “My son went through (agricultural) classes and then on to Michigan State University, and my daughter was taking nursing classes through MCC while in high school during the pandemic.” 

Through MCC, Homich’s daughter was able to transfer 18 credits and completed her nursing program earlier than expected.  

Homich enjoyed MCC’s golf outing. 

“This event brings a lot of awareness to the college and also supports ‘friend-raising,’ as I call it,” she said. “It brings more people closer to the college, which has been and still is a great place to help people with their missions in life.”